My Name Jose Jimenez (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Comedy  »  General/Comedy
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: March 24, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collectors' Choice
• UPC: 617742200829
• WAPI (Tower ID): 113107565
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #126622 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #709 in Comedy (See Top 100 Comedy Bestsellers)
• #211 in General/Comedy (See Top 100 General/Comedy Bestsellers)

Browse more products related to "My Name Jose Jimenez"

Browse more products related to "Bill Dana"

Liner Note Authors: Gene Sculatti; Steve Allen.

Authors: Leonard Stern; Arne Sultan; Marvin Worth; Don Hinkley; Herb Sargent; Stan Z. Burns; Bill Dana.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Don Mac Kinnon; Geri Maxwell; Ed Carroll; Donn Trenner; Marilyn Lovell; Barbara Crane; John Tynan; Jo Anne Worley; Lisa Beth Carroll.

Bill Dana had a long and successful career as a comedy writer (winning an Emmy Award for his work on the classic sitcom All in the Family), but he'll always be best remembered for his character Jose Jimenez, a slightly tongue-tied man with a thick Hispanic accent who first popped up in "Man on the Street" bits on The Steve Allen Show in the late '50s. By 1960, Dana's work as Jimenez on television and in nightclubs had become popular enough that Kapp Records signed him to a recording contract, and My Name...Jose Jimenez was divided between a collection of sketches originally broadcast on The Steve Allen Show and a 17-minute "press conference" in which Dana spontaneously answers questions posed to Jimenez by a number of comics posing as reporters. A few decades later, Dana's dialect humor might seem racist to some, but part of what made the character funny was despite his name and his accent, Dana invariably toyed with the character's nationality; depending on the bit, Jimenez could be a British arranger accompanying Diana Dors, an Irish theatrical director, a farmer from the Midwest, an Australian bobsled racer, or the B�rgermeister of a village in Germany. And if there wasn't a great deal of depth to Dana's character, his comic timing was excellent, his banter with Steve Allen and Pat Harrington was effective and inspired, and the improvised press conference shows he could get laughs and think on his feet at the same time. Given that Dana actually scored a few minor hit singles for Kapp as Jimenez, it's a shame that Collectors' Choice's reissue doesn't include any bonus material, and the CD appears to have been sourced from an old vinyl copy of the album, but My Name...Jose Jimenez still inspires a healthy portion of laughs, and Dana's comic creation connects on record more effectively than one might expect nearly half a century later. ~ Mark Deming

There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!

• Great Deals on CDs under $9.99

  New Releases, Bestsellers and Classic Albums all for under $10! Great Music for Everyone's Tastes!

• Great Deals on DVDs under $12.99

  New Releases, Bestsellers and Classic DVDs all for under $13! Great Movies, TV and DVD Specials for Everyone's Tastes!

• Great Deals on Books under $14.99

  New Releases, Bestsellers and Classic Books all for under $15! Great Reads for Everyone's Tastes!